Monday, January 25, 2010

I fixed it ...

I fixed the neckline on my Enid Gilchrist dress. Although it still stands away from the dress form, on me it sits flat. I've but a button on the back and pressed it since I took these pictures and all in all I'm pretty happy with it. I don't LOVE the dress the same was as I love the fabric, but it fits and is a nice addition to my summer wardrobe. I'm going to wear it to work today.

Next up I got to work in the black skirt that is so desperately needed in my wardrobe. It's Vogue 8426 View C. I've made View A before but I decided to make the long version with the kick pleats because I like the look of longer skirts with boots in winter. This is a serious step outside my comfort zone. I have never in 47 years worn skirts longer than my knees and although I can still wear short skirts, something has clicked over in my brain and made me realise how close 50 is. It's time to start covering up.

This hasn't been pressed or hemmed yet as I left it to drop overnight. The fabric nearly drove me to distraction. I have no idea what it is. I bought about 4m of it at the op shop for $4. It's polyester something and has a crepey weave. It's heavy and doesn't crush easily but when you apply a clapper to a crease, it holds perfectly, making it the ideal fabric for this skirt. The fabric was very hard to cut and I'm sure has blunted my scissors, plus it slipped all over the place. It's even hard to get a pin through it. It's ravelly like a crepe, so I overlocked all the raw edges before sewing and it behaved perfectly. It's the sort of fabric that if I saw a RTW skirt in it I'd buy it, but if I saw a roll of it in a fabric store I'd run like hell. Overall, I'm thrilled with the skirt, the fabric has the perfect weight and movement and the fit is great (size 10 straight out of the pack) but I'm glad the sewing is over. Yesterday it was 41 degrees celsius and trying this on when I was sticky and hot was very unpleasant. You can see Molly in the background laying on the floor. My sewing room is the coolest place in the house. I need to make a straight black skirt, too, but for my SWAP, I think this is perfect and will go really well with the knit tops I have planned.